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Tuesday, December 30, 2008

We had a wonderful time in Florida over Christmas break. It was great to get back to the sunshine and the warm weather for a week. We stayed very busy back home, like we normally do when we visit. Before Christmas we shopped and shopped and shopped. It was alot of fun and we got some great deals at the outlet malls. Tuesday night, we had a midnight (yes you read right) barbeque in the front yard at my parents house to enjoy the lights they put up, it was very different but alot of fun, and also that night we did our normal baskball time, it wouldn't be the same if we went home and didn't do that! Christmas day was alot of fun. We spent the morning at my family's house doing our normal Christmas routine. Lunch was spent at Grandma Klingensmith's house, with a house full of people as normal. It was alot of fun catching up with all of my cousins and hearing about what they are up to these days. Then off to Grandma Koshko's for round two of Christmas dinner. I can't believe how fast my second cousins are growing up on that side of the family, it made me feel just a little old, hah. By the time we got back to my parents house I was wiped! But it was alot of fun. Friday we had a back yard fire and invited our friends and family to stop in and see us while we were home. It was a great time of fellowship and it was nice to catch up with everyone. Saturday was one of my favorite days, BEACH DAY! I was looking forward to this for weeks and weeks and the day was beautiful. My Grandparents took us out to breakfast to start the day out and then we were off to Sanibel and Captiva. We drove around Captiva, and if you ever get to go there you should. It is a really neat and out of the way vacation spot that I would reccomend to anyone. Then we crashed at the time share my parents own on Sanibel beach and just took a nap on the sand and listened to the waves. It was so relaxing. We saw a Mom and Baby dolphin that day, I never go to Sanibel without seeing a dolphin, they like it out there and I don't blame them! Saturday night called for leftovers at Grandma Klingensmith's and once again got to visit with relatives! We spent the night there that night and went to church with them that day. Sunday was a day to relax, and we enjoyed the last few hours until we left Monday morning. Hope you all had a great Christmas, I can't wait to hear about it!

Monday, December 22, 2008

We are heading to Fort Myers today to spend some time with family and friends! We hope to see you if you are in town during the week! I posted this picture for all of our friends here in Texas and others up north, because I wanted them to see what our Christmas is going to look like:) Hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Remember what the season is all about and give thanks to the Lord for all he has done in your life. Read the Christmas story this season as well. Luke 2. Love you all!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

I come writing today with news I wish I didn’t have to write. I went to the doctor’s today to find out that we had lost the baby. I wish I had the strength to tell you all in person, but it is easier on me emotionally to let you know through this. Please pray for me as I am going through a hard time emotionally. I am however, so thankful for the Lord’s comfort during this hard time, and the power of his calming presence in my life, even now. Although it will take me a couple of days to feel this in my heart, I know that this is all part of God’s plan as hard as that is to come to terms with. But I am comforted in knowing that the Lord is there comforting me at every moment. Although I have sadness in my heart I can still feel the Joy that the Father has placed in my heart. I could not go through this without Him. Also, I am so thankful for the friends I have made here in Fort Worth. They didn’t wait even a moment to ask if we need any help, from bringing dinner to asking to spend some time with me, to the prayers that I know are being lifted up as we speak. Life would be much harder without those friendships. And to my precious husband, who has been so wonderful to me today, giving me so much comfort and support and helping me stay strong. Please pray for me, this is especially hard because we are going home for Christmas on Monday. Thank you so much for your prayers.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Well, after a long weekend of moving we are finally in our new house. It has been very cold here and we haven't had heat the last few days, so our friend Lorri has let us stay with her during the evening and we are very thankful. Our heat should be turned on today (fingers crossed). We still have alot of organizing to do, so we will post pictures in the next few days. For any of you who would like to know here is our new address:

1807 W. Seminary DriveFort Worth, TX 76115

In other news it has been freezing here in Fort Worth the last few days. Right now it is 23 degrees. Last night we had frozen rain, which is never fun to drive in. Who knows, we might see snow in the next few days and if we do, we will have pictures to share! We'll be in Fort Myers in a few days for Christmas! We are so excited to see everyone! Anyways, that's all for now!

Monday, December 8, 2008

My parents came in to Fort Worth to spend some time with us. Both my parents have been to Texas but it was the first time they spent any time here together so it was alot of fun! They came in last Wednesday and we went out to Pappaduex for dinner, it was so delicious, as usual! Thursday we went to the President's Club dinner at the Seminary and went to the Handal's Messiah after that (well, at least the first act, haha). Friday there was an open house at the President's home that they do every year for the students. It was nice as usual with great snacks. We spent the evening downtown looking at the Christmas tree and walking around in Barnes and Noble. Saturday was spent shopping, shopping, shopping! And a trip to Texas wouldn't be worth it without eating dinner at Babe's Chicken and so we did on Saturday Night. They left early Sunday morning. It was a great trip and we had alot of fun! Only two more weeks until we are in Fort Myers for Christmas. I can't wait to see them again as well as the rest of my family!

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Today is Justin and I's 2nd year anniversary. It's amazing how fast time flies. We have been through so much through the last two years, from moving halfway across the US, to starting new degrees and jobs, to expecting a little one next summer. We are so extremely blessed! Thank you to everyone who has prayed for us over the last two years! And now to get just a tad mushy (It's allowed on days like these) Justin- I love you more and more everyday. I am so blessed to have you in my life and I look forward to what the future holds. Happy Anniversary honey!

Monday, December 1, 2008

A few weeks ago Justin and I found out we are going to have a baby! We are super excited! I am in my ninth week, and I have been pretty sick, but it has been so worth it to know that we have a little one on the way! My due date is July 11th! That's about all the info we know as of now! Keep us in your prayers as we have alot to plan and look forward to in the future! Continue reading our blog and we'll keep you posted!

Sunday, November 30, 2008

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year in Tallahassee visiting Justin's family! We spent four wonderful days there and it was so good to see everyone. One of the highlights of the trip was meeting our super cute 9 month old nephew. He is such a sweetie and Rodney and Michele are definately blessed to have him! We got to visit with our niece Dana as well, who is growing up to be a beautiful young lady. It was the first time we have been to Tallahassee since Mamma P had moved to her new place and we stayed with her in her nice second story apartment overlooking a golfcourse. Very nice! Michele was quite the hostess, she made a very good Thanskgiving dinner with all the fixins! We did the whole black Friday thing, getting up fairly early and shopping for a few hours, although we didn't shop as hard as we normally do, we did find some bargains!Of course the highly anticiapted Florida State vs. Florida game was the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and the noles lost again this year, which wasn't fun, but the Gators didn't kill us as bad as everyone thought and we held our ground, so GO NOLES, there is always next year:)Well, Thanks Sculleys and Mamma P for making out Thanksgiving so much fun! We look forward to our next visit and we love you guys!

Monday, November 10, 2008

What a fun weekend we had! We went with several of our friends camping this weekend and we had a blast! It started out with 12 of us cramming all of our stuff into three cars, and heading West out of Fort Worth. Our plan was to camp at Mineral Wells State park, but when we got there all the campsites were full. We then got back into our cars and headed 30 minutes west of Mineral Wells and went to Possum Kingdom, and let me tell you this was in the middle of nowhere. We didn't even have cell phone service! It was so beautiful out there and it was really nice to just be outdoors! When we got there we unpacked all of our stuff and put up our tents. We had a beautiful campsite. This was our view!Once we were all unpacked we were running out of daylight so we decided to go camping, this was our crew before our hiking adventure:The trails were very nice. Here are some pictures we took at the top of the trail.When we returned from hiking the first thing we did was build a fire! We were all hungry at this point so we cooked hot dogs over the fire and had dinner. Then of course we had smores. We had two of our friends who are from other countries, and it was their first time ever trying smores! They loved it! We were really cold that night and I don't think anyone brought quite enough clothing, but we had a really fun time.The next morning we woke up early to see the sunrise. It was very cold!We then had granola bars for breakfast, enjoy a few more hours of relaxing around the warm fire and then it was time to go! I was sad that it was such a short trip, next time we plan on going for more than one night.On the way back we saw the World's Largest Wheelbarrel. Yes, you read correctly, the World's Largest!We had such a great time we are already planning our next adventure! That's all for now!

Monday, October 27, 2008

Saturday Justin, my friends April and Brook and I went to the Japanese Fall Festival at the Botanical Gardens here in Fort Worth. The weather was beautiful, it was around 65 to 70 degrees outside and very sunny! It was a perfect day for being outside. When we got there, we watched a few traditional Japanese dances. They were really neat. Here is a picture from the dances:

After the dances we went to the food section of this event. This was alot of fun, they had sushi tasting, beans, rice rolls, and miso soup. It was very yummy! After the sushi stop, we went and watch a traditional Japanese Drum Presentation.

And here are just a couple of pictures of us hanging out in the Japanese Garden:

This trip to the festival confirmed in me the passion I already have for Japan and the people who live there. I really hope to visit the real country sometime, but for now this was alot of fun too!

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

We've been in Texas for a little over a year now and it has been such an amazing experience. We've met GREAT friends, have great spiritual leaders and have learned SO MUCH about the Lord and His word. But I was talking to a friend the other day and she said something that made a whole lot of sense and I hadn't really thought of it this way. She said, "I always feel like I am under attack, whether it be sickness, or relationship problems, or other various things. I feel like I am training for battle, only a spiritual one." I realized she was completely right. We are all here training for the most incredible battle of all. Satan does not like seeing students rise up and train to continue to share the gospel with people all over the world.

We have been hit with financial battles, health issues (that we continue to battle), family problems, friends who are going through horrible times, and the list goes on and on.

But although to most it sounds like this call would not be worth it I would not quit for anything. Joshua 1:9 says: "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." This is such a powerful verse for those in the line of ministry. Many many things can happen while your in ministry but to know that God is always with you. WOW! What an incredible thought!

Remember to pray for those who you know are training or in ministry. They are constantly attacked and need prayer warriers to lift them up to the Lord. It doesn't seem like much but it makes all the difference to those people.

Please continue to pray for us as well. It is very hard to balance everything, marriage, school, work, church etc. And we would love it so much for you to keep this in your prayers. Well, I guess that's all that's on my mind right now.

Oh, one more thing, thanks to those who read our blog. We really appreciate those who keep up with us. We love you!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Today we went to the Alliance Air Show at the Alliance Airport in Fort Worth. It was a lot of fun. It was a day filled with military planes and choppers, great food and really exciting air shows! Of course the best show of the day was the Thunder Birds! Here are some pictures of today's adventure:)

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Here is a video that our good friend Rebekah made from Thailand. It shows a little of the ministry in Thailand, the people of Thailand and our experiences in Thailand, another video to follow soon! Enjoy! Amy~

Monday, October 6, 2008

So, Saturday was date night and we spent our evening at the movies. We went and saw Fireproof. What a fantastic movie. It is definately a MUST SEE. It was so refreshing to see in the theater a movie with so much meaning and purpose. And, although it seems like a major chick flick from the commercials, completely not so gentlemen! There is plenty of action scenes in it! Well,I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone who has not seen it but I will leave you with this advice: if you have not seen it, please go. You will not be dissapointed. Have a great day!

Amy~

Love is Not a FightWarren Barfield

Love is not a placeTo come and go as we pleaseIt's a house we enter inAnd then commit to never leaveSo lock the door behind youThrow away the keyWe'll work it out togetherLet it bring us to our knees

Love is a shelter in a raging stormLove is peace in the middle of a warIf we try to leave may Gos send angels to guard the doorNo, love is not a fight but it's something worth fighting for

To some, love is a word that they can fall intoBut then they're falling outKeeping that word is hard to doLove will come to save us, if we'll aonly callHe will ask nothing from us, but demand we give our allI would fight for you, would you fight for me?It's worth fighting for.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Today Justin found a new job at World Relief as the Employment Specialist. What kind of job is this? Well, he will be working with refugees as they come into the country and he will be helping them find jobs so they can begin a life here in America. What a wonderful opportunity for Justin to work with people from all over the world and to share the gospel with them. Pray for him as he begins this job, as it will keep him very busy between that and school! Another major blessing is we have a MUCH better health insurance plan now. This has been a huge blessing for us. The insurance we had was not the best and with some of the health problems we have dealt with last school year we do not want to take any chances! Just one more way God is blessing us as we continue preparing for ministry!

Want to know a little bit more about World Relief? Check out their website: http://www.wr.org/. That's all for now!

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Once a year the Missions Center has something called the Skene Festival. It's a camp out we have on campus for Missions and it's a great event! This year we focused on East Asia and prayed for the people and Missionaries serving in East Asia. We had games, a hot dog dinner, fellowship, a movie, praise and worship and prayer time. It was an amazing night. Well, Here are some picture for you to see!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

I thought I'd post some entries from Thailand on here so ya'll can read about some of our experiences. Here they are!

July 16, 2008

We returned to Chaingmai University today. There were five of us. It was very quiet on the University Campus because many students had returned home for the Buddhist holiday the following day. We were about to give up when we saw a student sitting alone near the cafeteria. His name was Gow. He was a student in his fifth year at the University. He was studying Social Studies. We told him we were students from America and we would like to ask him a few questions. First we asked him if he was Buddhist. He said yes. We told him we were studying religion and this week we were learning about Buddhism. We asked him if we could ask him some questions about Buddhism. After about 20 minutes of basic information we began to ask him some deeper questions. We asked him where he thought he was going to go when he died. He explained that he believed in heaven and hell and nirvana. He said if you do bad thing you will spend some time in hell, but once you pay for the bad things you do, you will then go to heaven to be rewarded for the good things you do. Then you will return to the earth. We asked him what nirvana was and he told us it was the ultimate state, that state of non-existence. We asked him what he felt about not existing any longer. He said he didn't like it so he wasn't trying to get there. Heaven was good enough for him. We then asked him how he thought the world was made. He said he didn't know but he didn't really care. He cared more about the future and what was really going to happen to him when he died. We then asked him if we could share with him what we believed will happen to us in the future. He said yes, please do. We used the evangecube and went through each step and explained it to him. Mrs. Eitel also talked about her being a nurse and seeing people who didn't believe have fear when they die, while believers have an overwhelming peace when they die. I think this impacted Gow very much. He then told us he was meeting with a Christian group on Saturdays because he was looking for the truth. We asked him some questions about the group and found out that he was meeting with Jehovah Witnesses. We told him that we were not the same as Jehovah witnesses. He seemed relived because the Jehovah Witnesses seemed to be "very pushy". We asked him if we could meet with him again because he had to go. He said yes. He asked if we could bring a guy with us and we said yes. We will be meeting with him again tomorrow at 2:00pm. We plan to leave with him a devotional, a bible and possibly get his contact information to get him plugged in with a local missionary.

July 17th

Today we spent our evangelism time at Waa-Wee coffee shop. We met Gow there and five of us sat down with him. I felt like we had too many people talking to one person, so Lindsey and I broke off to speak to other people in the coffee shop. We started by talking to Wanna. She was a woman who was in Chaingmai for the holidays. We asked her if we could interview her about the Buddhist faith for a class. She agreed and we asked her several questions about Buddhism. When we asked her what Buddhism meant to her she would always start her sentences with "Well, the book says". We would then ask her, "What do you believe though." I could tell by her comments and facial expressions that she realized that she did not know what she believed. We then asked her if we could share with her what we believed. She happily agreed and listened quietly. We share the gospel with her using the evangecube and focusing on the relationship God wanted to have with her. She seemed a little overwhelmed when we were finished so we asked her if she had any questions. She said not at the moment. We then gave her contact information in case she had any questions or if she wanted to meet again. We also took her contact information and I plan on emailing her a few times to keep contact with her. We then said good-bye and reminded her to call us with any questions and we also reminded her that God loved her and wants to have a relationship with her. We then took the time to pass out several tracts around the area of the coffee shop, and told each person we had a "gift" for them. Everyone we came in contact with was very grateful and took the tract. Then we went back to the coffee shop to check on how the conversations with Gow was going. It seemed to be going well so we found two students who speak English from Chaingmai University in the coffee shop. One was a male Buddhist named Pom, and the other was a female named Jip, who claimed to be a Christian. She explained to us that she was a Christian because her mom was a Christian. We explained to her that becoming a Christian is a personal decision to follow Christ. We then shared the gospel message with an emphasis on having a personal relationship with Christ. We asked them if they had and questions and they said no. We asked if they would like to meet again, they said no but they would like to have their contact information in case they changed their minds. We also took their contact information. We asked them if there was anything they need us to pray for and they told us they needed prayer for their finals. We told them we would everyday next week. Gow came to the conclusion that he wanted to go with us to church on Sunday. I am praying that God will speak to Gow during Church.

July 21, 2008

Today we went to a mosque with a school. We met women named Maria Ampone. She is a 50 year old woman who is a native of Thailand. She works a teacher at the mosque. We asked her if we could interview her about Islam and she said yes. We asked her about prayer. She explained to us in Islam they pray what the prophet has asked them to. Five times a day you must pray facing Mecca. Preferably, this is to be done at the mosque. We talked to her about prayer and the relationship we have to God. She said that she too can talk to God like we can. That she feels God when she is alone. This frustrated me a little bit because I wasn't sure where to go with that. I knew she couldn't possibly feel God but I also knew I couldn't tell her that because it would offend her greatly. We didn't get much farther with her that day because she had to go. But she did introduce us to another teacher at the school named Noriah. She will be meeting with us the rest of this week. I am really excited to be spending some quality time with one person this week. It gives us a chance to get to know the person so we can get to deeper issues. I am praying that the Holy Spirit will speak through us in the next few days.

July 22, 2008

Today we went back to the mosque to speak with Noriah. We planned to meet her at 2:00pm but we couldn't find the mosque. It was very frustrating because for once we did not have a translator so we could not speak with our driver. We had to backtrack and we didn't get there until three. Luckily, Noriah still had some time to talk with us. We began by asking her what God was like. She told us he was the creator. He wasn't like man. He can see us but we cannot see Him. He is loving, because he sent the prophet. She also described him as merciful, compassionate, mighty, all-seeing, knowledgeable, and everlasting. We then asked her about paradise and how she knew she was going there. She explained to that no one knows whether they will be in paradise or not. It is God's decision once we die whether we deserve heaven or hell. I wanted so badly to talk to her about what we believed but I felt the Holy Spirit telling me to wait. We then asked her about prayer. She said it was a ritual. It's to show that they have faith. Again, we decided to listen instead of speaking. We also asked her if humans are good/bad. She explained when we were born we were clean and pure but then we have to decide whether we will be good or bad. Once she was finished explaining these things she said that she had to go but she wanted to leave us with some questions. She asked us "What do you think about Islam?", "Does the Christian accept Mohammed?", "Is the God of Islam the God of Christianity?", and "What do you think about the Quran?" When I heard them, I was a little nervous to answer these questions. Would answering these questions make her not want to listen to the gospel message? I know that after this meeting time our team would have to sit down and pray about what we needed to do. We told Noriah we'd answer these questions but we would also like to share what we believed in. She seemed eager to know and said we would meet again at 2pm. Hopefully we will be there on time!

July 23, 2008

We met with Noriah again at the school and this time we made it by two. This made me excited because we would have more time to spend with her today. It was interesting when we got there because she didn't ask us right away about her questions. She wanted to listen to what we believed in. We then got to share the gospel story with her using the evangecube. After we were finished she explained to us that she had six brothers and sisters who were Christian in her family and she hadn't heard the story exactly like that. We told her the story about Jesus and the two thieves on the cross. She kept asking us if the men on the cross were friends or disciples of Jesus. We explained to her that they were just common thieves who were serving out there punishment. She was amazed by the story and didn't understand how anyone could do that for someone, especially a thief. She had brought a Bible with her that her sister had given her and we showed her where to read the story from on her own and she highlighted it. We challenged her to read John in the bible and told her we would answer any questions she had. She was more than willing to read it. She said she was a seeker of the truth and that she would be willing to take the time to read it. After that Hana shared her testimony and it was very powerful. We left her with that and told her we would see her again tomorrow. Now that we have shared the gospel, we will have to answer her questions tomorrow. I feel much better about it now.

July 24, 2008

Today is the last day we will meet with Noriah. I hope that we will be able to answer all her questions. We arrived at the mosque again at 2:30, ready to talk. She had read three things that she wanted us to explain to her- The Passover, John the Baptist, and Atonement. We explained to her what these things meant by showing her scripture passages and challenging her to read along in her Bible. She was fascinated with the stories. I shared my testimony at this moment. She then asked us if we could answer her questions. I told her that first off, we love the Muslim people, especially since Jesus loved them, but we believe that the Bible is the only Word of God and if we don't read it in the Bible then we can't believe it's true. She asked us if that meant we believed the Quran is true. We told her we could not believe it because it is not the Word of God. She was quiet for a moment and then thanked us for being honest with her. She said she didn't have much time left but she had one more question for us. She asked us if she did want to get saved how she would do that. At this moment I felt so excited. This was the perfect way to end our time together! We explained to her that she had to admit she was a sinner to God through prayer, and ask Him to forgive her sins. She also had to confess to God that she believed in her heart that Jesus was sent as a gift for our sins and that she accepted the gift. We gave her a tract with a sinners prayer in it to make sure that she understood what we were talking about. She thanked us for our time. We took a picture with her and wrote down her mailing address so we could write her. Before we left we asked her if there was anything we could pray about. She said she wanted to have us pray about seeking the truth. Although Noriah did not come to know Christ while we were there, I believe we planted a seed so deep in her life that she will never be able to ignore it again. We left her in the hands of the Holy Spirit. I pray that he will continue to pull on her heart and that she will continue to seek the truth because if she does she will realized that what we have shared with her is the only way, the truth and the life.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

So, Justin has been to Canada and Back. He had a great trip and we hope to post pictures soon. Just wanted to make a quick post for a prayer request. Justin has been having some medical issues the past few weeks and noone knows exactly whats wrong with him. He has been to several Doctors and we are waiting on the Test results now. Please pray for him that we get some answers soon.. Thanks for the prayers. I'll keep everyone posted. Our trip to Tallahassee was cancelled this week. Unfortunately, Justin is not feeling well and medical bills are high so we decided to stay here. It's been extremely hard living away from family and it gets even harder when you can't get home to see them. Anyways, Thanks agian for the prayers!

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Yesterday, Justin finished his finals for the school year!! He has successfully completed his first year at Seminary!! Yay!! Pray for him as he leaves for Canada tomorrow. He will be there until next Thursday on an Evangelism Practicum. He will be taking a class and evangelizing in the city of Vancouver. As alot of you know, Cananda is not an easy place to share the gospel so pray that the people will have open hearts for the message of Jesus Christ and also pray that he will have a safe trip! As for me, I finished my first school year as World Missions Center Coordinator and wow has it been a year!! Learning my job has been an experience. Summer is quiet around here, so I'm told, so I am excited to use this time to set up events and mission trips for next year. My sister is coming into town tomorrow (I'm dropping Justin off in Terminal D then picking her up in Terminal E) and I am excited to have some "girl time" this weekend. We are going to Six Flags and other various places and I am sure I'll add some pictures when it is all said and done!! Well, that's all for now!!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Wow, What a great vacation we had in Idaho! Last week, we headed to Mccall Idaho on a Ski trip with my family. We had a great time. We skied 5 out of the 7 days we were there. In past years, I have had a hard time with skiing, because of my whole heights issue, but I am proud to annouce that I concured those Blues this year! Justin did well, like I thought he would. It was a great spending time with my family. We laughed and caught up with our lives and just had a fun time together. One of my favorite things we did was sit in a hot tub in the snow. You've got to experience that at least once if you never have. It is just fantastic!

Friday, February 15, 2008

We've been busy the past few weeks. Justin is staying extra busy this semester with his classes and all the reading he has to do. Me, on the other hand just had the busiest week of my working career. There's an event at SWBTS that happens every three years called "Global Missions Week." It a HUGE event where the International Missions Board comes on campus, bringing Missionaries from every region to promote International Missions. And being the World Missions Coordinator, you can only imagine how much I was involved in this event! As much work as it was, it was an amazing week! It was so great getting to meet the Missionaries (who, by the way are the nicest people on the planet) and talking with them about their lives. We also had so many students commit to Missions in several ways, whether it would be short-term experience, prayer or even long term decisions to become career missionaries, it was amazing to see what God did on campus that week. We slowed down a little on Valentines day. Justin had class the evening of Valentines day so we went out the night before. We went to Razoos for dinner (gotta love cajun food) and had a great night. It was great to sit down and just relax together. Justin surprised me for Valentines Day. I really needed a new pair of running shoes and for my VDay gift he took me shopping to pick out any shoes I wanted! It was such a blessing because I have had the bottoms of my running shoes falling off for at least six months. Valentines night I made dessert for Justin and I while he was in class for a little surprise and we spent the rest of the night enjoying each others company and eating fruit and chocolate. yum. Well, that's all for now. Hope you all had a wonderful Valentines Day! ~Amy

Thursday, January 17, 2008

I know I should have posted this blog entry closer to the New Year but I totally forgot about our blog and so that lead to forgetting to post. Looking back on the last year I have to say it's been the toughest of my entire life. Don't get me wrong, it has been a fantastic year but I don't think I have ever felt "growing pains" as much as I did in 2007. Of course, marriage changes alot about life. You can no longer think about just yourself, you now have "your other half" and you learn very quickly that your marriage is not about you. Justin is an awesome husband and I love him dearly, but it's been a challenge bringing two independent people together in one house. I also had my first teaching job. The only thing I can say is I learned a whole lot about the word patience and that I defiantly did NOT want kids right away. June was a fun month. Justin and I didn't work and we enjoyed the company of both of our families. We spent a week at the beach with my family, a couple weeks spending time with my grandparents and then a week in good ol' tally with the Sculley crew. Then there was the big move to Texas, which by the way is very different from Florida. I missed the beach right away(it was terribly hot during the summer here in Texas with no beach to go to) but the biggest thing I realized was that I was going to miss my family support group more than I thought I was. My life went from having a loud family event once a month or so to living in a city where Justin knew no one. I realized what I had just gotten myself into and I wasn't as happy about moving to Texas as I was before we actually did. It was tough for a little while. The only thing that was amazing about it was I had the opportunity to rely on Justin. We had time alone where we spent together and our relationship grew so much more. I also had to rely on God a WHOLE lot more then I did when I was living in Fort Myers. I started my job at the World Missions center here on Campus in August. Talk about an amazing job! I loved it the day I started. What a perfect place to work when your husband is getting a degree in Missions! Then September came along and I ended up going to the hospital one Sunday Afternoon. I went because I had sharp pains on the right side of my abdominal area and I thought I might have appendicitis. It ended up being an ovarian sist. I had to get emergency surgery that next Friday. It was a scary time in my life, considering I don't like hospitals, needles and knives and I had never had surgery before. But wow, the amazing things God did for us during this time. Our Seminary family came together so much for us during this time. We had dinner brought to us every night for a few weeks, cards sent, financial help given from the Professors and their secrataries, I even had someone buy me a nice blanket and some comfy sweat pants and slippers to take to the hospital with me so I could be comfortable. It opened my eyes to the amazing support group we had been adopted into during this time. What amazing people we are surrounded with here at SWBTS! (I sound like a commercial for the school, I know, but it's the truth!) My mom also came up and spent a week with me during this time. Having four kids in our family there isn't alot of one on one time with mom, so I enjoyed laughing and crying and just talking with my mom for the week. (Although I wouldn't trade my siblings in for anything, I did enjoy feeling like an only child for a few days.) The rest of the year slowed down. Justin and I continued to grow as a couple and we also started growing closer to the Lord. We spent Thanksgiving in Fort Myers with my family. We had a great time. It was good to be back with the Klingensmith/Koshko bunch agian. My grandfather turned the big eight zero and we had a big surprise party for him during the Thanksgiving break. For the first time in a while my dad's side of the family were ALL together (all 60 of us or so) we had a great time and it was sad to leave but at the same time I was ready to get back into our schedule back home. We celebrated our first year annivesary by enjoying a hike in one of the state parks here in Texas. We realized we wanted to start hiking and camping more so we bought a state park pass. We then spent a romantic night at the Melting Pot (talk about great food)! Christmas was spent with Justin's family in Tallahassee and we had a great time. And we ended the Year with having my mom and brother Tucker come to Texas for New Years. We went to the Armed Forces Bowl and Had a great time! Anyways, that was our year in a nutshell. We are excited to see what God has planned for us in the 2008. Oh, and a New Years resolution? Besides hoping to lose ten pounds or so (I know, WAY OVERDONE) I think I'm actually going to try to write in our blog and keep our friends and family updated with our lives. So check back you never know what we'll be up to this year!! *Amy

About The Perrys

We have been married since December 2006 and have lived in Fort Worth, Texas since July 2007. Justin is a Seminary student at SWBTS and Amy is working on campus at the WMC. We are expecting Baby Perry in February 2010 and are really excited to become parents!